Raising the Stakes: From Improvement to Transformation in the Reform of Schools

Citation

Davies, B. (2008), "Raising the Stakes: From Improvement to Transformation in the Reform of Schools", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 456-456. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540810883186

This is the first of a new series of books focussing on “leading school transformation” published as a partnership between Routledge and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Brian Caldwell and Jim Spinks are well known for their previous work on self‐managing schools. In the first chapter of this book they develop a new view of self‐management and in the following chapter establish core principles for the next practice of self‐managing schools. This is followed by chapters 3‐6, which consider: alignment; intellectual capital; governance and social capital; and high quality and high equity as underlying principles of the transformation of schools. In looking at how this may be funded, chapter 7 considers the next stage in the funding of schools, which is supported by chapters 8 and 9 on student‐focused planning in design and student‐focused planning in action.

The final two chapters provide insightful accounts of success in transformation set in an international context together with the authors' view of what they consider the new challenges are for policy and practice in improvement and educational transformation. This is a high quality analysis of issues in the transformation of schools that will be of great use to policy makers, academics and practitioners as they reframe their understanding of these important issues.